Osteria Mozza @ Marina Bay Sands (MBS)

Thinking of where to go for dinner at 10.30pm after watching Grease the musical at MBS is such a headache. However, the design of MBS is so brilliant such that restaurants are prominently located opposite the theater and due to the proximity, you may just be lured into one.

Mozza entrance with Osteria Mozza on the left and Pizzeria Mozza on the right.

As PB was too hungry, all other options was out (most are close  at 11pm) and we opted for Osteria Mozza as there were available seats and they are close at 12midnight. I had originally wanted to opt for Pizzeria Mozza as I had browsed the menu outside the restaurant and found it pretty OK, just that pizza may be a little too heavy for my dinning companions and there was actually a queue for seats! Probably all the hungry people just out from the Grease! LOL

The table setting

Chef Tasting Menu

We would have opted for the chef tasting menu if it was not so late.

Menu – Antipasti and cheese from the Mozzarella Bar

Menu – Pasta

Quite a good variety of Pasta and you can opt for it as a starter or a main.

Menu – Secondi (Main) and Contorni (side dishes)

Menu – Aperitivi. Fancy some drinks before your meal? 🙂

View of the Mozzarella Bar

Still water was $9 a bottle which was gone even before I managed a picture of it as we were too thirsty! LOL.. We opted for house water after that. 😛

Affter we placed our orders, we were served with some nibbles, complimentary from the chef.

It is a one bite snack with cracker at the base, feta cheese (if i remembered correctly) in the middle and some herb on top. I forgot what the dark paste like stuff was but the overall taste blends quite nicely.

We were served some housebread and I opted for the wheat one.

First came our antipasti –  Calamari Fritti with capers and pickled chili butter, $23.

The batter on the calamari was very light and is not your usual plain flour batter as they added some greens in it which instantly perks the dish up.  The calamari was firm and easy to cut and you get a very faint butter taste. Nice.

 

I ordered the Burrata with grilled asparagus, guanciale, brown butter and almonds, $25 from the mozzarella bar.

Another view of the dish.

From what I found out from the waitress, guanciale is basically cured pork.

Close up of the guanciale , burrata, asparagus and almonds.

The guanciale was a little salty on its own but when eaten with the burrata, asparagus and almonds, the flavours and textures combined nicely. The dish was gone so quickly that I had to “fight” for it!

A friend ordered this from the pasta for his starter and I guessed it should be Celery Root Cappellacci with Morel mushrooms, $32 as I did not hear the name of the dish when he placed his order and it was only reflected as cappellacci in the receipt. You can opt for it as a main dish at $74.

Close up of the Cappellacci with freshly grated cheese! I tried it and fell in love with it! It was a warm dish and when you bite on the pasta, some moussey, cream like thing ooze out from the pasta. Nice! Wish I could have more of it!

PB ordered the Squid Ink Chitarra Freddi with sea urchin, crab and jalapeno, $55 and the waitress helped to divide it into 2 portions since we were sharing.

Close up of the sea urchin and squid ink pasta.

I only heard PB ordering squid ink pasta and did not know that it comes with sea urchin so I was a little surprise when the plate was placed before me and it had sea urchin on it and it was served cold. I have not eaten squid ink pasta cold before and it is definitely an experience.

Another view of the pasta.

I think that there was too much going on in this plate with sea urchin, crab meat and squid ink pasta all plated as one. You will need very fresh seafood to make such a dish a success. It did not work for me  though the waitress kept emphasising that it is their signature dish. I felt that the crab meat was a little mushy and raw and there was a fishiness that prevented me from going beyond my first forkful. Felt so sinful at having wasted $27.50 as I would rather not force myself in eating it and end wasting the rest of the meal just because of this dish. I should have ordered my own instead of letting PB make the decision. 😛

The main course ordered by one of my friends – Butter Braised Alaskan Halibut with Fava Beans, Cinzano Bianco and Bluefoot Mushrooms, $55, which I had wanted to order too and we ended up sharing. 😛

Close up of the fish.

Other than the mushroom being too salty, this dish was yumz.

The fish as it was served.

The other fish main that we ordered – Grilled whole sea bream with herbs and extra virgin olive oil, $65. 

The fish, flew in from Greece, after it was opened up by the service staff and drizzled with the grilled lemon and extra virgin olive oil.  Not many restaurants dare to present fish whole as some customers may be put off by the look of it.

The left over extra virgin olive oil and sea salt for you to sprinkle on your fish if you prefer it to be more salty.

Another view of the de-boned fish filled with herbs.

My only grouse with this dish was that it was a little overcooked and that there was a big bone left in it. Having watched too many series of MasterChef, I did not expect to find such a big bone (easily visible) in a fine restaurant like Osteria Mozza though I can still tolerate the smaller ones.

Service kind of taper off during our meal, not too sure if it was because it was near to closing or because they could not convince me that their signature pasta is good and decided to stay away. Food wise there were some hits and misses as we may not have ordered what could have wow-ed us due to the late meal. Price wise, it is slightly on the higher end (our bill came up to $310.73 after including service and GST) and hence, it may be a place reserved for special occasion and indulgence by the majority.

Osteria Mozza
2 Bayfront Avenue
B1 Galleria Level 42-46
Singapore 018972
Tel:6688 8868
Opening Hours: Daily: Noon – 12midnight
Website: http://www.osteriamozza.com

 

P/S: Sorry for the slightly different hues of the colours in the pictures as the place was too dark for my Iphone to perform properly and I had to do some editing to improve the brightness and remove the orange hue.